Matthew 27:27–44 | Mark Minnella

[0:00] No jokes today, we have a very serious passage to cover. In fact, I would say this is the most serious.! I say that because we mentioned before, each of the Gospels spends the biggest percentage of time, the biggest percentage of their text on this.

[0:21] In Matthew, Matthew spends 20 chapters on the life of Jesus, 7 chapters on the final week, and one after the resurrection. Oh, hey, there's a... Thanks, Michelle.

[0:36] Helps to have friends that don't have ADD. So, um... So then Mark spends 10 chapters on the life of Jesus, 5 chapters on the final week, and one after the resurrection.

[0:53] Luke spends 19 1⁄2 chapters on the life of Jesus, 3 1⁄2 chapters on the final week, and one after the resurrection. And John spends 11 1⁄3 chapters on the life of Jesus, 8 2⁄3 chapters on the final week, of Christ, and two chapters after the resurrection.

[1:15] I would say that no life was more important. No death was more powerful. And no offer of pardon more real. The entire Old Testament looks forward to the coming of the Messiah, the Savior, the Redeemer.

[1:33] And the New Testament is the outworking of His redeemed people taking the good news to the rest of the world. Everyone in the world needs to understand that what a person does with Jesus will determine their eternal destiny.

[1:52] You see, if Jesus was just a good man who died for His cause, then His death has no power. His death can't save me. His death can't help me.

[2:03] But, if Jesus is who He says He is, God in the body, then we better listen to what He says. The first part of our passage this morning is Matthew 27, beginning in verse 27.

[2:22] It says, Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around Him. They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on His head.

[2:40] They put a staff in His right hand. Then they knelt in front of Him and mocked Him. Hail, King of the Jews, they said. They spit on Him, and they took the staff and struck Him on the head again and again.

[2:54] After they had mocked Him, they took off the robe and put His own clothes on Him, and then they led Him away to crucify Him. This section of Scripture is only recorded in Matthew and Mark, not in Luke and John.

[3:11] Remember that each of the Gospel writers emphasizes a different facet of the time that Jesus was here. Each writer had a different target audience and presented Jesus in a way that group of people could relate to.

[3:28] Matthew, we're in now, probably the first Gospel written, was primarily focused on a Jewish audience. And so Matthew includes things that would be important to Jews.

[3:41] The Jews of that time would have been interested in the genealogy of Jesus. Where did He come from? Who was His family? He's presented as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the King of the Jews.

[3:54] I listed the other three there on your outline if you'd like to look them up. So this passage would have been important to Jews and Romans, Mark wrote to the Romans.

[4:05] Since they were the ones who carried out the crucifixion of the Messiah. The Jews ordered it, but their law wouldn't allow them to crucify anyone, so they turned them over to the Romans.

[4:17] This mocking and beating of Jesus at the hands of the Romans, I think, shows us several things. Number one, that Jesus was a very well-known figure.

[4:29] At this time, the nation of Israel and all of the area around the entire Mediterranean was under the rule of Rome. Rome had conquered everybody. And these Roman soldiers, they knew who Jesus was and that He claimed to be a king.

[4:45] Herod had heard of Jesus and he wanted to see Him. The Koran, which is the Muslim Bible, if you want to call it that. The Koran mentions Jesus 25 times.

[4:58] Jesus was a well-known public person. Writers of that time, Josephus among others, historians, they talk about Jesus. No rational person could ever deny that Jesus of Nazareth was a real historical person.

[5:13] So if that's true, then what about Jesus' claims to be God? That's where the division occurs.

[5:24] Secondly, Jesus suffered physically before the cross. Mark tells us that Pilate had Him scourged. Then the Roman soldiers put a crown of thorns on Him and they beat Him over the head with a stick.

[5:36] But also, He had to endure the mocking. First from the Jews and then from the Romans. Number three, the rejection. Not only from the religious leaders, but most of the people.

[5:50] And where were His disciples? They ran away too. We only see John and some women at the foot of the cross. But I believe that as horrible as all of the people were, as all of these things were, it was the separation that happened between the Father and Son was far worse.

[6:14] That is the thing that He dreaded the most. When He prayed in the garden, may this cup be taken from me. It was the cup of God's wrath. Jeremiah 25, 15 says, Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.

[6:34] In Revelation 14, 10, we're told of a future event. It says, They too will drink the wine of God's fury, which has been poured out full strength into the cup of His wrath.

[6:49] Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 3 says, Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. By nature, naturally, people, us.

[7:02] We were under God's wrath. Romans 9, 22. It's a great verse. You might want to star this, look this up afterwards. It says this in Romans 9, 22.

[7:13] Romans 9, 22. What if God, choosing to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the objects of His wrath, prepared for destruction?

[7:24] What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory, even us?

[7:35] See, here we see God's wrath and God's mercy in one verse. Wrath on people who aren't saved, who don't know the Lord, and yet mercy to those of us who don't deserve it, but are redeemed.

[7:50] We're separated from a holy God by our sin. His wrath, His judgment is upon us. He bears with people. He gives us time to respond to the truth. Let's look at our second section, beginning in verse 32.

[8:06] As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotho, which means the place of the skull.

[8:19] There they offered Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall, but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified Him, they divided up His clothes by casting lots, and sitting down, they kept watch over Him there.

[8:33] Above His head, they placed the written charge against Him. This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Two rebels were crucified with Him, one on His right and one on the left.

[8:45] Those who passed by hurled insults at Him, shaking their heads and saying, you who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself.

[8:56] Come down from the cross if you're the Son of God. Verse 41, In the same way, the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders mocked Him. He saved others, they said, but He can't save Himself.

[9:10] He's the King of Israel. Let Him come down from the cross and we'll believe in Him. He trusts in God, let God rescue Him if He wants Him. For He said, I am the Son of God.

[9:23] In the same way, the rebels who were crucified with Him also heaped insults on Him. So as far as Simon of Cyrene, we're not told much about Him.

[9:34] But Mark's account adds that he was the father of Alexander and Rufus. And so very possibly he was known to the disciples of the day. John says that Jesus started out carrying His cross, but then Simon carried it the rest of the way.

[9:50] It's believed that Jesus would have been maybe too weak because of all the beatings to carry the cross. So point number one, Jesus clearly said that He was God.

[10:03] He was God. Some false religions would say that Jesus was less than God. A God, but not the God. Mighty, but not the Almighty.

[10:14] That He was an angel, but that He was somehow less than the Father.

[10:28] But that's because of unbelief. He clearly claimed to be God, equal with the Father. He said in John 14, 9, Don't you know me, Philip, even after I've been among you for such a long time?

[10:39] Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? The Jews knew it. They knew He claimed to be God. They tried to stone Him once for it.

[10:52] At His trial, they said that He blasphemed me because you, a mere man, claim to be God. Jesus claims to be God, equal with the Father, one with the Father. The Jews mocked Him.

[11:05] They said He saved others. Interesting. You see, they saw the miracles and they didn't deny Him. He saved others. He healed people that were born blind.

[11:16] He raised people from the dead. And the Jews saw it. They knew it. Yet they attributed Jesus' healing power to the devil. I believe it's clear to anyone who looks at the facts honestly that Jesus is God.

[11:30] But religion, pride, and a lot of other things keep people from recognizing that. Point number two, Jesus had to die. Verse 42 says He saved others, but He can't save Himself.

[11:45] That was the choice. He could not do both. Isaiah 49, 6 says, It's too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.

[12:00] I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. Also Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 prophesy about the Christ who would suffer and die.

[12:14] Why did Jesus have to die? He had to die because of sin. Not His, but yours and mine.

[12:26] He had to die because we messed up. God is perfect. God is holy, which means separate from sin. God cannot have sin in His presence. This is the problem for people.

[12:38] God demands perfection. You see, most religions, they want to gloss over this. They want to talk about the fact that God is merciful. Well, God is merciful.

[12:49] He could kill each person the moment we sin. The moment we step out of line, we could be dead. But He is merciful. He offers people a choice and a chance.

[13:00] Point number three, people have a choice. Some scriptures. Romans 2.10 says there's none righteous, not even one.

[13:12] Romans 3.23 says this, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. God gave the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament, not so people could keep them to get to heaven.

[13:26] Nobody ever could. He gave the Ten Commandments so that people would see, we don't measure up. We can't make it. No one ever kept those Ten Commandments, by the way, except for Jesus.

[13:40] Romans 6.23 says the wages of sin is death. What does that mean? What's a wage? A wage is what you work for. It's what you earn.

[13:51] It's what you deserve. We deserve death. Revelation 21.8, But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile and the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

[14:11] This is the second death. And I remember way back, this would have been in 1979, probably half of you weren't even born yet. my friend Kevin read me this verse.

[14:24] And he said, Mark, you ever tell a lie? Man, I was a famous liar. I lied so much that my parents wouldn't believe anything I said. And I remember one time, my friend Danny, I used to like to light fires.

[14:38] It was, I don't know why, we were fascinated with fires, me and a couple of my friends. And my friend Danny and I, we went in the woods behind the neighborhood and we were lighting fires. And we were about nine or 10 years old, I guess.

[14:51] And these Boy Scouts caught us. I don't know what they were doing there. But these Boy Scouts caught us lighting fires. And they were going to tell our mom. And we tried to run away from these guys, but they were older and they caught us and they held onto us and they drug us back into our neighborhood.

[15:07] And Danny's mother was outside. And so they walked us up and she said, what are you doing with those boys? Let them go. Well, we caught them burning fires in the woods. And we said, no, it wasn't us.

[15:18] Of course. And so Danny's mom said, you let them go. I'll take care of this. So of course, Danny's mother, who was good friends with my mother, called my mother and said, you know, that apparently the boys were down there and they were lighting fires.

[15:32] And so my mother confronted me. Nope. Didn't do it. Wasn't me. These guys made it up. It wasn't us. On and on and on. The next day, I remember that my mother came home from work.

[15:47] And she said, you almost had me. I believed you. You looked me in the face and you lied to me. And I thought, uh oh. And she had this pack of matches.

[15:59] Well, little did I know that the pack of matches I stole was from a restaurant that Danny's parents and my parents had gone to the week before. I don't even think it's around anymore, but the restaurant is called Bayou Bell.

[16:15] I'll never forget. I got nailed by the Bayou Bell matches. And I went, like no way out of it. Yeah. I was a liar. I was a liar.

[16:27] You see, God made people with three parts, a body, a soul and a spirit, three parts, just like him. And so we need to understand that when the Bible uses this word death, it means separation.

[16:41] Okay. Physical death is the separation of the body from the soul and the spirit. The body's dead, but the soul and the spirit, they live on forever.

[16:53] In one of two places. With God in a great place where he created for us, or with Satan in the lake of burning sulfur, that's described as the second death.

[17:04] The second death is a separation of the soul and the spirit from God. So look up here. If you're born once, you have to die twice.

[17:18] But if you're born twice, you only got to die once. That's what the Bible says. Lots of people like to quote John 3 16. It's a good verse.

[17:29] It says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life. That was Jesus telling Nicodemus, a religious scholar, how to get saved, how to go to heaven.

[17:43] But if you go back to the beginning of the conversation, Jesus starts out with this religious leader and he says this in John 3 3. I tell you the truth. No one can see the kingdom of heaven unless he's born again.

[17:56] In John 14 6, Jesus says, I'm the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. People love to say there's many ways to heaven.

[18:08] But God never said that. Jesus never said that. The Bible never says that. Jesus says in Matthew 7 13 and 14, Enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction.

[18:22] And many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life. And only a few find it. My friends, there's lots of ways to go to hell. But there's only one way to get to heaven.

[18:35] We can do it God's way or we can do it our way. Our way leads to the second death, the lake of fire. God's way leads to eternal life with him forever.

[18:50] Now listen, I can't stand up here and say these things except they're in the word of God. I've been messing up for over 60 years. I started messing my diapers and it went downhill from there.

[19:01] Okay, we're all in the same boat. And the boat's got a big hole in it. And it's going down. Someone needs to throw us a life preserver.

[19:17] And Jesus is my life preserver. I was in a boat a thousand miles from shore. And the boat's going down. And I don't have a chance of saving myself.

[19:28] And Jesus came along and said, get in my boat. This one floats. You see, God took my sins and the sins of the world and he dumped them on his son when he was on the cross.

[19:46] The wrath of God that we deserve was poured out on Jesus. There's a story that I read a long time ago. And it's the story of this mother chicken and the little chicks.

[20:01] And there's a raging fire going on and it's about to consume this hen house. And this mother chicken gathers the little chicks and sits on them.

[20:16] And the fire goes through. And the firefighters, after the fire was over, they saw this carcass of this mother chicken charred to bits. But when they picked it up, the little chicks underneath were alive.

[20:28] And I think that's such a good illustration. You see, Jesus did that. Jesus put me under him and he took the wrath of God for me so that I didn't have to.

[20:40] 2 Corinthians 5 21. 2 Corinthians 5 21. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. We can choose to stand before a holy God in our righteousness and we're going to end up in the lake of fire.

[20:57] Or we can take the righteousness of Jesus. I did that. And I hope and pray that each of you can say that you have to. Musicians can come on up.

[21:08] We've got one more verse. Revelation chapter 20 and verse 6 says this. Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection.

[21:23] The second death has no power over them. Amen. For if you're born twice, you only got to die once. But if you're born once, you have to die twice.

[21:36] Please make sure that you're born again. Father, thank you so much that we have your word. It's a sure thing. It's a 100% guarantee that Jesus is there to take our penalty.

[21:47] Lord, thank you for taking mine. I deserve death. And yet I have life because Jesus took the wrath that was due me. And he died and he rose again.

[21:59] And because of that, I know I have eternal life. I pray that each person here would know that for sure. Amen. Thank you.